Delta flight raced Hurricane Irma from San Juan Puerto Rico, and won

The flight quickly unloaded passengers and took on a new planeful of passengers to take to NY.

“Then there are tons of people on the countryside, without any transportation and elderly.”As Irma barreled over the Atlantic Ocean toward the small USA territory, Puerto Ricans prepared for a storm of historic proportions.Parra’s cousin, Adalberto Gonzalez, operates two paramedic companies on the island and has been working 12-hour shifts in preparation for the storm.Gonzalez said he was keeping a cool head as the storm approached.”I’m calm”, said Gonzalez, 45″.

Minutes after Delta Airlines Flight 302 from San Juan, Puerto Rico to NY took off at the U.S. Territory the Control Tower at San Juan International Airport was evacuated.

Hurricane Irma was spinning toward Puerto Rico today, but that didn’t stop one Delta flight from making a daring landing on the island mid-afternoon-and then trying to get out before the storm made landfall.

With no time to spare, the pilots quickly took care of business on the ground and got the plane back in the air by 12:41 p.m., FlightAware reported.

Jason Rabinowitz, a self-described aviation geek tweeted the flight’s trajectory in real time, uploading images of the plane climbing out of San Juan between the outer band of Irma and the core of the storm.

As Delta 431 flew to Puerto Rico, Twitter users cheered on the flight, giving kudos to the airline’s dispatch team for expertly monitoring the volatile weather conditions against the Terminal Aerodrome Forecast and navigating the flight to its destination.

Winds were well below operating limits for the 737-900ER to safely operate at around 28 miles per hour, and gusts up to 36 miles per hour.

At least two other flights departing from Miami International Airport and the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport headed to San Juan about the same time but were diverted before reaching the USA territory, according to flight records. He says meteorologists for the Atlanta-based airline worked with the flight crew and agreed that it was safe to fly. “And our flight and ground crews were incredible in their effort to turn the aircraft quickly and safely so the flight could depart well before the hurricane threat”. Heavy rain and historic winds lashed Puerto Rico’s northeast coast Wednesday as Irma roared through the Caribbean on its way to Florida.